Here with Me

“Sometimes I sit and wonder/ who I would choose to be/ if I could wish a wish/ to be a different kind of me.” A small, tan-furred rabbit sits on a rock in the forest, its fuzzy paw pointed toward its head in an indication of deep thought as it considers the possibilities. What about a fox? “I’d bounce through the forest/ till it was time for bed.” A bear? “I’d be big and scary/ with my grrr, grrr, grrr!” Repeated animal sounds offer chances for listeners to chime in. In soft, scumbled painterly spreads, Walker (the If Animals Kissed Good Night series) paints the rabbit meeting the animals and mimicking their actions, its winning face scrunched up in a rabbit smile. Visibly textured strokes add a sense of cuddly fuzziness. After turning to imaginative prospects throughout, the rabbit returns to the security of the familiar world: “But I would never choose/ a different kind of me,/ because right here with you,/ is where I want to be.” In a sweet solo debut, Walker affirms the importance of the child’s primary bond—and the first stirrings of imagination and independence. Ages 3–6. (Nov.)